Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1887-09-01
THE NORTHWEST
THE GENTEKNIIL HISTORY VF OHIO.
copyrighted. All rights reserued.l
PERE MARQUETTE.
By w.FARAAND FEIoH.

PERE MARQUETTE.
These instances Of intrepid daring,
zeal, and hardihood are given place at
this juncture as n fitting introduction
10 the exploits of Father Marquette"
and Chevalier La Sale. The former the
HFather of the Northwest and the lat
ter probably the first white man that saw
the Ohio river. Previous to this time,
however, we have alleged travels by o
certain Col. Wood, in 1862, but it is
rather apocryphal, to say the least. The
same can be said of Capt. Bolts travels
in 1910.
La Sale first arrived in Canada from
France In 1867, but Marquette had al
ready preceded him, for the following
Claude Dablon. In 1870 Nicholas Per-
rot was ordered west by the Intendant
to propote congress of the lake indi-
ans, and the following year occurred a
grand council at Sault, when the French
took formal possession of the North
west. The same year Marquette re-
established permanently the mission of
st. Ignatins. In 1878, Allouez and
Dablon visited Green Bay and all the
western shore of Lake Michigan, re-
turning by way of Chicago; but it was
reserved for Father Marquette, the fol-
lowing year, to penetrate to the
Mississippi river, going thence from
Mackinac.
In 1873, Marquette and Joliet left
Mackinac for Green Bay, portrayed
their canoes up the rapids of the Fox
river, crossed Lake Minnebago, des-
cended the Wisconsin river, and, on
the 10th of June, they reached the
Mississippi near the spot where the
city of Prairie du Chen now stands;
this was one hundred and forty years
afte De Soto had discovered the noble
"Father of Waters" Despite the In
dian stories of demons and monsters,
they continued their journey south
ward to the mouth of the Arkansas
river, bearing the story of the cross to
the wild tribes of red men along the
banks OF the mighty river. They re-
turned from the Kaskaskies, and thence
to Lake Michigan, by the tend of Sep
tember, having padded their canoes
over twenty-five hundred miles.
Pere Marquette remained to estab-
lish missions among the Indians, and
died three years later; but while Joliet
returned to Quebec to report his dis
coveries. Marquette returned to the
Illinois at the request of the Indians,
and ministered to them until 1875. On
the 18th Of May, in that year, as he was
passing with his boatmen up Lake
Michigan, "he proposed to land at the
mouth of stream and perform mass.
Leaving his men with the canoe he
went little way apart to pray, they
waiting for him. AS much time passed,
and he did not return, they called to
mind that he had said something of his
death being at hand, and went to seek
him. They found him dead where he
had been praying he had died. The canoe
men dug grave near the mouth of the
stream, and buried him in the sand.
Here his body was liable to be exposed
to q rise of water, and would have been
80, had not the river retired and left
the missionary's grave in peace. Char.
levoix, who visited the spot some fifty
years afterward, found that the waters
had forced passage at the most diff
cult point, and had cut through bluff
rather than across the lowland where
the grave was. The river is called Mar
the pathetic story Of this great explorer
and reverend father.
While the simple-hearted and true
Marquette was pursuing his labors of
love in the far west, two other men
were preparing to follow in his foot
ateps, and perfect the discoveries so we'll
begun by him and the Sieur Joliet
they were Robert La Sale and Louis
Hennepin.
CHEvALIER LA SALE.
On the return of Joliet to Quebec,
Count Frontenac, who had been made
Governor, found La Sale valuable
assistant and counselor in his vast
schemes of discovery. So La Sale was
sent to France to enlist the aid of the
court to King Louis; and in 1677-79 he
returned to Canada with full power to
proceed in his grand emprises.
Among the early French discoveries
no name appears in more brilliant
hight than that of La Sale. He was
born of q proud and wealthy family
in the north of France, and was destin-
cd for the service of the church, one Of
the Jesuit order; but his proud
nestive spirit, fired by love of adven-
tuIe, broke away from the restraints Of
o monkish life, to encounter the dan.
gels VI tlIc Ill CIle NeW WOTlu, Ill OF
der to extend therein the empire o
Louis XIV. Accordingly, at the age o.
twenty-six, we find him with a small
party, nesr the Western end of Lake
Ont rio, preparing to enter the domain
of the dreaded Iroquois. He travelled
southwark and westward from thence,
until he reached a tributary ofthe Ohio
probably the Allegheny. He followed
this until he reached the main stream
and descended the Ohio with his party
reaching the falls of the Ohio near
Louisville, in the winter of 1669-70. Hi
party refused to go farther, and he re
turned to Quebec, with the proud dis
tinetiOn of being the first white man Il
dascend the Ohio river.
Tn 1872 map was made, supposed to b.
by La Sale. On this, s,says Mr.. Parkman
all the great lakes are laid down with con
siderable accuracy. The whole length
Of the Ohio river is also laid down, with
the name it now bears; it was SO called
by the Iroquois on account of its beau
ty. The Mississippi must have beer
laid down from fortunate guess, a!
several years before he discovered il
and gave it the name Colbert" after
the prime minister of Louis XIV. Ir
1869 or 1770, he had entered within 6
few miles of Lake Erie branch of the
Chic, and descended as far as Louis
Wlle. In 1870 he embarked on Lake
Erie, sailed through Lake Huron into
Green Bay, and thence into Lake